Random News: January 26, 2025

\DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

---

Good morning. It’s January 26, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m back.

• Where have I been? Not very far away in Anaheim, CA, working at the NAMM Show.
• It’s an annual business event I’ve been doing since I was 23 years old, and that was a long time ago. This was my 32nd NAMM Show, and that doesn’t count the Summer NAMM events I’ve done in Nashville.
• What do I do there? Well, I am an independent marketing communications firm. Most of my work happens long before the show itself, preparing content, marketing strategies, press releases, and various event planning actions that allow my clients to havre a successful show there.
• And then there’s the show itself. The entire process is physically and mentally grueling, and while I generally have a good enough time there — and get to see a lot of friends who I only run into at NAMM — I am always very grateful when it ends.
• And then I can start the process of healing and getting back to my normal self.
• And now, let’s talk about some news. You’re probably aware that quite a lot has happened in the past set of days where I’ve been absent.
• We’ll get into the details in a moment, but I think the first thing you need to know is the context of what Presidumb Dumpy and his pals are doing.
• It was a specific plan to scare you into submission, and from what I can tell, most of it seems to be working in that regard.
• But on the other hand, a bunch of people who didn’t seem very engaged in “politics” (whatever that means to them) in recent times now appear to be developing an understanding of the true implications of a fascist dictator running the USA.
• Some would say “too little, too late.” I say, “Welcome to the Resistance. Get ready to help.”
• Let’s do a quick recap of recent items.
• Fox News host Pete Hegseth was confirmed as secretary of defense last week. 
• Despite Republicans having a majority in the Senate, the vote was 50-50. Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote.
• The confirmation vote was razor thin because three key GOP senators — Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lisa Murkoswski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME) — voted no, along with every Democrat.
• The 44-year-old Hegseth has no background in running a large organization. Now he’s running the largest one in the world.
• I think we all know that Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Republican conference in 2017 and paid a financial settlement. He’s been married three times; a former sister-in-law accused him of abusive behavior toward his second wife. He was in charge of two veterans' nonprofit groups where more money was spent than was taken in.
• Shrug. In this period of ass-kissing toward Dump, it’s unlikely that any of his poor decisions will be challenged.
• Here’s one that will, though.
• On Friday night, Dumples the Dictator Clown fired a slew of inspectors general. The action violates federal law.
• Oddly, many of those he fired were people that he appointed during his first term. He claims not the know them.
• But now he’s removed the independent inspectors general of nearly every Cabinet-level agency in an unprecedented purge that clears the way for Dumpy to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste, and abuse in the government.
• He intends to steal as much of the USA’s assets as possible between now and when he drops dead. And some people want to let him do it.
• Federal law requires Congress to receive 30 days’ notice of any intent to fire a Senate-confirmed inspector general. The legal uncertainty could create awkward encounters tomorrow, when several watchdogs who were told they were fired planned to show up in their offices to work anyway.
• Ha ha.
• But in the meantime, oversight of the government’s largest agencies was left in limbo as the Senate-confirmed watchdogs at the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, and the EPA, Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration were ousted.
• Dumpy can’t have anyone looking at his actions while he steals the country’s assets for his own personal benefit.
• Anyway…
• I won’t go through the laundry list of executive actions Dump has issued in his first week. We mentioned many of them before. Some will stick, and others will be successfully challenged in court for being unconstitutional.
• I’d what’s important now is what’s inevitably coming next: a national abortion ban and revoking the rights of people of the same sex to have relationships.
• We will fight these efforts in many arenas, from the courts to the streets.
• Let’s move on.
• The U.S. Air Force will no longer train its enlisted personnel or officer candidates about the Tuskegee Airmen or the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
• The former were groundbreaking Black pilots known for their service during World War II, and the latter were the female World War II pilots who were vital in ferrying warplanes for the military.
• Anyone who isn’t white and male who made crucial contributions to the success of the USA is being erased from history.
• Any lesson plans for basic training that have to do with diversity are under review to determine if they comply with an executive order from the Fascist in Chief that aims to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government.
• It’s up to us now to continued to preserve the records of their contributions.
• Moving on.
• It’s rained a little bit here in Southern California for the first time in months, and we’re expected more today.
• Good news for fighting the fires? Yes, but also potentially heavy downpours on charred hillsides could bring new troubles such as toxic ash runoff and damaging mud/debris slides.
• Rainfall that began late yesterday was expected to increase today and possibly last into early Tuesday.
• And now, The Weather: “Julie” by Horsegirl
• From the Sports Desk… today is the Conference Championship games for the AFC and NFC.
• It starts at noon PT/3PM ET with the Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are favored by -6, but I think anything could happen.
• Then at 3:30PT/6:30ET, the Buffalo Bills visit the Kansas City Chiefs for the NFC championship. The game is a dead heat, with Vegas giving the defending champ KC a -2 advantage.
• And the winners of these games playing the Super Bowl in two weeks on February 9.
• Today in history… The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (1564). The British First Fleet sails into Port Jackson to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia, which is commemorated as Australia Day (1788). Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state (1837). In the first Battle of Seattle, Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all-day battle with settlers (1856). The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union (1861). Virginia is readmitted to the Union (1870). The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress (1915). The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird (1926). The first United States forces in WWII arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland (1942). The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope until BTA-6 is built in 1976 (1949). Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon and misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (1962). On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had sexual relations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky (1998).
• January 26 is the birthday of the 12th Dalai Lama (1857), general Douglas MacArthur (1880), mafia boss Frank Costello (1891), pilot Bessie Coleman (1892), singer Maria von Trapp (1905), violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908), pianist/composer Jimmy Van Heusen (1913), philanthropist/politician Annette Strauss (1924), actor Paul Newman (1925), director Roger Vadim (1928), cartoonist Jules Feiffer (1929), MLB player/actor Bob Uecker (1934), activist Angela Davis (1944), football coach/child molester Jerry Sandusky (1944), film critic Gene Siskel (1946), singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams (1953), guitarist/songwriter Eddie Van Halen (1955), singer Anita Baker (1958), comedian/TV host Ellen DeGeneres (1958), NHL player Wayne Gretzky (1961), singer Andrew Ridgeley (1963), speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy (1965), NBA player Vince Carter (1977), and the Suleman octuplets (2009).

That’s enough for now. It’s good to be back, but I’ll tell you… it’s going to take a little time for me to full recover from the past weeks/months of high-level effort in getting ready and doing my trade show. I’ll get there. Enjoy your day.